Comfort and counsel

Margate Elementary tutor, 91, uses her life experiences to help guide students.

January 27, 2008|By C. Ron Allen Staff Writer

Margate — One boy felt like his world was crumbling because classmates were teasing him. But Ruth Kean consoled him and saved the day.

Another boy got in trouble with his teacher for falling asleep in class. He later told Kean that he stayed up at nights and played with his brother.

"I told him that's the wrong thing to do," said Kean, 91, who volunteers at Margate Elementary Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Whether she's serving as their mentor, their tutor, their comforter or their grandma, the kids in Kim McConahy's class can't get enough of her.

"They can't wait to throw their arms around her and hug her and kiss her," McConahy said. "She is such a welcome addition to our class."

The retired dental assistant began volunteering at a neighborhood middle school four years ago after her husband died. But she later moved to the elementary school to help tutor students.

Kean works individually with some students because it's more effective, she said.

"A lot of them need that one-on-one help," she said. "I work with comprehension more than reading because a lot of them read quite well but don't know what it means. For instance, 'It's raining cats and dogs.' How would they know what that means, literally?"

As she interacts with these second-graders, Kean uses every opportunity as a teaching moment.

Her lessons go beyond the textbook, McConahy said.

"Some of the kids don't have a grandma per se who has the history to share and bring to life, so as she reads to them, she doesn't just read," McConahy said.

"She brings in life lessons and if they're having a bad day she gives them life tools that she has from her experience. She's like everybody's grandmother. She's like part of our family."

Talvert Blair, 8, looks forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"She makes us feel real good because she brings us presents and makes us all kinds of cookies," he said. "She kind of reminds me of my grandma who died."

It didn't take long for Kean to win the trust of the second-graders, even though they are four generations apart.

Kean was not sure how they would react to her.

"They [didn't] know me," she said. "After all, I am a grandma; I am not a young, attractive lady."

So, she pulled out a battery-operated penguin that sings 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands' and a wind-up cat and placed them on a table, breaking the ice.

That always does it, she said.

Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., Kean wanted to fulfill her mother's dream of her being a teacher. But those hopes soon were dashed.

"My father absolutely forbid it because when I was younger practically all the teachers were not married and my father said, 'I don't want you to be a spinster. You go to college but pick something else,' " she said.

She became a dental assistant and worked several years for her brother until she retired.

"I met my husband in the dentist office - he was a patient - so I pleased my father," she said, chuckling.

The union produced two sons.

She speaks proudly of her four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, who are displayed in a photo collection on her kitchen wall.

The compassionate and patient Kean will not end her sessions until her student gets a grasp of the material.

"I explain it to them and I say to them, 'If there is anything you don't understand, ask me. That's what I am here for' " she said. "And I'm pretty successful with it."

For Hanukkah, she received several cards from her students, some of whom are now in high school.

She cherishes all, but there was one from Taylor Smith that made her smile.